Sewer district settles eminent domain case

SARATOGA LAKE >> The Saratoga County Sewer District has agreed to posthumously settle with a $175,500 payout an eminent domain case that involves the lakefront property of a woman killed by her son last fall in a murder-suicide.

The case between the sewer district and Patricia Ambrozak, 75, was pending before police say she was brutally attacked and killed by her son John Ambrozak, 47, inside her mobile home alongside Bayshores Tropic Hut, a small bar, restaurant and marina she owned on Route 9P.

The police investigation into the deaths found that John Ambrozak broke several of his mother’s bones and ultimately stabbed her to death. He remained in the mobile home with her corpse for roughly 13 hours before he took his life with a single gunshot.

It wasn’t until several days later that neighbors discovered the bodies and notified the police.

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Now, the six-figure sewer district payout will go to Ambrozak’s heir to her estate, her brother, Stanley Gwiazdowski, according to Chad M. Cooke, executive director of the sewer district.

The eminent domain process with Ambrozak started in 2012, Cooke said, before the sewer district broke ground on its $18.4 million project around Saratoga Lake to upgrade the sewer capacity.

Sewer officials realized that an easement for a pump station on Ambrozak’s property had not been properly obtained or filed. The pump station was built in 1984, according to Cooke.

Cooke said that seems to have been the case with a lot of easements from that time period.

The Saratoga County Law and Finance Committee approved the sewer district payout Wednesday, and it will likely be approved by the full board of supervisors at the monthly board meeting Feb. 25.

Once the eminent domain case is officially settled, the county sewer district will own the 2,800-square-foot parcel that the pump station sits on. It was valued at $175,500 by an appraiser hired by the sewer district.

The majority of the Saratoga Lake sewer project will be finished by the end of June, Cooke said.